Advances in directional drilling (i.e., horizontal drilling) along with advances in hydraulic fracturing have made economical the production of oil and gas from shale formations. For future planning purposes, companies involved in oil and gas production need estimates of future production from such shale formations. In an attempt to provide such estimates of future production, the oil and gas industry has attempted to use formation modeling tools originally designed for conventional reservoirs (with high permeability). However, shale formations are vastly different than conventional reservoirs. For example, some shale formations may have 500 times less permeability than conventional reservoirs.
While it is possible to have existing formation modeling tools tuned to actual production history from a shale formation, the formation models are highly inaccurate as to future production from the shale formations.
Any advance which makes modeling of future hydrocarbon production from shale formations more accurate would provide a competitive advantage.